Tag Archive for 'Productivity'

Yearly Review: 2008/2009

Published
by
Phillip
on Sat January 3, 2009
in Annual and Reviews
. 0 Comments

During 2008:

  • I Moved from the Technical and System Co-ordinator post to Senior Web Developer at Great Yarmouth Borough Council. With the former I was involved in the operation and maintenance of the LED Broadcasting Screens, DMX lighting products and the development and management of some tourism web sites. With the latter, I have technical responsibility for delivering and developing the web services that the Council provides.
  • I assisted in creating a full-time web team to support the online services that the Council provides.
  • I developed my skills and knowledge at an unprecedented rate in a relatively short period of time.
  • I started my BSc (Hons) in Information Communications Technologies with the Open University as well as achieving ITIL Foundation certification. I have also completed a number of short courses related to the Open Text Live Link WCM Presentation Server CMS and the .NET 3.5 Framework.
  • I began the replacement and redevelopment of the corporate web infrastructure and website - this is progressing well and provides an excellent foundation and framework for future developments and online services.

During 2009:

  • Move house!
  • Complete the first phase of the new corporate website, launching a public beta in the first quarter of 2009, prior to going live. I will also continue to develop and integrate new and improved services into the website.
  • Aim to ensure the new Corporate Website starts and remains in the top 10 of Local Government Websites benchmark provided by Sitemorse.
  • Continue my support and development of the Flegg High PE ONLINE website.
  • Continue my personal development through self learning, experience and, if possible, further short courses.
  • Continue my study with the Open University. If possible, I would like to start three, 30 credit courses this year.
  • Continue my Open University Study Journal and write frequent posts about the new corporate website among other posts.
  • Aim to make greater use of Social Media tools, primarily Twitter.
  • Look to implement some GTD methods into my working practice to increase my productivity.
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Samsung NC10 Netbook

Published
by
Phillip
on Sun November 23, 2008
in Stuff
. 0 Comments

samsung-n10-view

I have recently decided to invest in a new laptop PC. Whatever I purchased needed to be extremely portable, reliable and overall, excellent value for money. A few years back, I had a Samsung laptop for my studies. This was extremely durable and the build quality was superb. Therefore, due to the previous reputation, performance and deliverability, Samsung is my brand of choice.

Over the past week I have been deliberating whether to purchase a standard laptop or a netbook. I don’t use my laptop for anything resource intensive; and, as the main reason for my purchase is portability, I decided to investigate the netbook route.

The Samsung NC10 is one of the most recent releases into the netbook market. Although this is a newcomer, from reading reviews, it competes with some of the established netbook brands.

As expected, the build quality is superb, the battery life is excellent (approximately 7 hours with WiFi enabled) and the screen quality is brilliant (1024 x 600 widescreen). The keyboard is sturdy, but takes a little getting used to.

The specification is pretty standard, 1.6Ghz Intel Atom Processor, 1Gb RAM and loaded with Microsoft Windows XP Home. The machine seems to boot faster than any other I have owned. Samsung even provide a slipcase for the machine.

This machine truly is excellent value for money. The only negative is a slightly small trackpad, however the positives vastly outweigh the negative.

I decided to purchase my NC10 in White. I ordered through Dabs.com as they had the most competitive price and I have an establishing purchasing relationship with them. The cost was £298 + delivery. I paid for standard delivery which is due to arrive in 1 - 3 working days. Bearing in mind this laptop was despatched at 3pm on a Friday it arrived before 9am on the following day. So thumbs up to Dabs for the excellent service and delivery!

Photo credit: Lockergnome

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Task Management Goodness with Remember The Milk

Published
by
Phillip
on Thu November 6, 2008
in GTD
. 2 Comments

A while back, I wrote a blog post about mobile working and Remember The Milk’s MilkSync tool for Windows Mobile and Blackberry smartphones. I rely upon RTM for task management with their slick AJAX interface, RTM for Gmail and the recent RTM Gmail gadget released for Gmail Labs.

Over at The 2.0 Life, they have written an excellent post entitled “15 Reasons Why I Am a Remember The Milk Convert“. This is a superb summary of the features and capabilities of RTM and is well worth a read. You never know, you may become a convert too!

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New GYBC Website Templates

Published
by
Phillip
on Tue September 9, 2008
in GYBC
. 0 Comments

As you may have previously read on my blog, I have been working closely with our Web Communications Manager to redevelop our Corporate website. Initially we have been working to create a stable foundation to develop upon and have recently held the second wave of consultation on some new templates for the website. I have attached below the proposed new landing and content pages. I am still awaiting the template for the homepage, as soon as I have it I will post. The colours are only indicative at present and could well be changed in the future.



Further details will be available soon, however comments and feedback would be greatly appreciated.

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The Machine is Us/ing Us

Published
by
Phillip
on Thu July 17, 2008
in Web 2.0
. 0 Comments

This is an excellent video introduction to the collaborative, social and productive elements of the “Web 2.0″ paradigm. It even goes as far to introduce the concept of the semantic web associated with “Web 3.0″.

The video was used as an introduction to Suraj Kika’s (CEO of Jadu CMS) presentation at ‘the use of Web 2.0 techniques on Council websites’ seminar at yesterday’s Building the Perfect Council Website conference; held at London’s Olympia Conference Centre.


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